Error occurred in the last one for some reason!Reading on another thread about disposing of asbestos from building sites/renovations made me think about "inventions" that ended up being hazardous in one way or another. It seems to be a pattern with humankind, that an invention is often lauded as the "best thing ever!", only with time and research (and often human casualties) to be proven dangerous.

Obviously, asbestos is only one of many products. Another that immediately comes to mind is Thalidomide, used decades ago to alleviate morning sickness, but found to cause deformities in babies.

Those machines in shoe stores that allowed children and their parents to actually view the child's bones in the "new" shoes they were trying on through the wonders of X-ray. Kids would be so fascinated by seeing their feet that they'd stand for several minutes in these machines wiggling their toes while Mom was busy helping little brother find a new pair of shoes.

Styrofoam, a great insulator that will be with us forever. Almost literally, forever.

The production methods for Electronics and plastics that can now be so easily mass produced that it is cheaper to throw them away than have them repaired. And they're flimsy enough that breakage is inevitable.

In the Eisenhower era, nuclear power would make electricity so cheap that it would just be given away.

Then, twenty years later, the people who were in the know were seen to gather in large groups with protest signs and chants of "no nukes!"

Now, in a sudden left-turn since the Fukushima disaster (Three Mile Island didn't turn the tide of public opinion enough, not did Chernobyl), nuclear power is touted as being the only wise answer for global warming.

I was too young to be aware of Eisenhower's prediction, but I was old enough to wonder why the majority of people weren't alarmed by the deadly dangers posed by radioactive waste, and now my children tell me that new generations of reactors have solved many of the problems. Me ... I dunno.

re: nuclear waste. Part of the reason it's so dangerous is because there aren't enough reactors. Theoretically, much of the waste could be re-used in a slightly different kind of reactor, which would cut the half-life significantly. But new reactors with that technology (actually, new reactors, period) aren't being built. Apparently it's better to just bury the stuff.